Chapter 3546: Fundamental Change

That Water Qi flowed smoothly into the Water Core, where it was refined and then redistributed throughout his body before settling partially into his Dantian.

Lin Mu opened his eyes, stunned.

This was fundamentally different from normal absorption.

In ordinary cultivators, water had to be digested, absorbed by organs, and only then refined into Qi through cultivation techniques. But his Water Core bypassed much of that process entirely.

Curious, Lin Mu decided to push further.

He took out a container of seawater.

The smell alone was unpleasant, and when he drank it, the taste was exactly as expected. Sharp, bitter, and overwhelmingly salty.

He suppressed his reaction and focused.

The results were immediate.

As the seawater entered his throat, nearly half of it was converted into Water Qi just like before. What remained became noticeably denser. The salt concentration increased rapidly.

By the time the liquid reached his stomach, more water was extracted and converted, leaving behind a thick brine. When it passed into his small intestine, there was almost no water left at all.

Only salt.

Pure, concentrated salt.

His large intestine absorbed a portion of it, but Lin Mu noticed a clear limit. Once his body reached a certain threshold, it stopped absorbing salt for storage or use.

Then something unexpected happened.

As the remaining salt reached his kidneys, it did not simply pass through.

It broke down.

Not dissolved. or filtered, broken down.

Lin Mu felt his breath hitch.

The salt did not remain salt. Under the influence of the Water Core and the enhanced function of his kidneys, it was separated into components he could not immediately identify.

The process was not violent. It was precise, almost surgical.

Tiny particles were released. They were so small that even his immortal sense struggled to perceive them clearly. They flickered at the edge of perception, existing on a scale beneath ordinary matter.

Lin Mu frowned.

He had seen something like this before.

When certain gases burned under different conditions, they too released particles that were not easily categorized as Qi, matter, or energy.

But this felt different.

The properties of these particles were strange. They were neither salty nor watery. They carried no obvious elemental signature. And yet, they were not inert.

They were active.

They interacted with his body subtly, disappearing into his meridians and organs without resistance.

Lin Mu repeated the experiment several times, carefully monitoring the results.

Each time, the same thing happened.

Water was converted into Water Qi far earlier than digestion should allow.

Excess minerals were processed with terrifying efficiency.

And when pushed beyond normal limits, his body did not simply expel waste.

It refined it.

"This isn’t just purification," Lin Mu murmured softly to himself.

He closed his eyes again, sinking deeper into contemplation.

The Water Core was not only granting him affinity and control. It was changing how his body interacted with matter itself. It was breaking substances down beyond their mundane forms, extracting what was useful, discarding what was not, and refining what remained into something purer.

This was not simple water manipulation.

This was transformation.

Recycling.

Conversion.

Lin Mu felt the fog stir.

He was close.

Very close.

But the final step still eluded him.

And for now, all he could do was continue observing, experimenting, and waiting for that final piece of understanding to fall into place.

Lin Mu focused his immortal sense, narrowing it again and again, tracing every possible pathway within his body where the strange particles might have gone.

At first, he was certain they were still there.

He could feel that something had changed, that something new had entered his internal circulation. Yet no matter how carefully he searched, he could not find even a trace of them. It was as if they had vanished entirely, swallowed by his flesh, blood, and meridians without leaving behind a footprint.

Minutes passed.

Then an hour.

Lin Mu did not move, his posture steady, his breathing calm, his mind sharpened to a razor edge. He expanded his immortal sense inward to its limits, sweeping through his organs, bones, marrow, and even the deeper layers of his meridians. He slowed his perception until time itself seemed to stretch.

Nothing.

The particles were gone.

Or rather, they were no longer perceptible to him.

Lin Mu frowned slightly.

His body had long surpassed that of ordinary immortals. Every inch of him was dense with Qi, Vitality, and refined essence. His blood carried power, his bones were closer to Immortal treasures than mortal components, and his meridians were reinforced beyond natural limits.

And that was precisely the problem.

If those particles had dispersed evenly throughout his body, then finding them would be like searching for a drop of ink in an ocean that was constantly churning. Even his immortal sense had limits, and this was clearly beyond them.

After several more attempts, Lin Mu finally opened his eyes.

"This is impossible at my level," he muttered quietly.

It was not frustration he felt, but acceptance. The realization was calm, almost detached. There were simply things he could not yet perceive, no matter how refined his cultivation was.

Just as he was about to sink back into contemplation, a faint shift occurred in the air beside him.

It was subtle, almost nonexistent, but Lin Mu sensed it immediately.

A presence.

He turned his head calmly.

Standing a few steps away was the Saintess.

She appeared as she always did, serene and ethereal, her figure seemingly detached from the space around her. She was not sitting or standing in the conventional sense, but rather existing there, as if the courtyard had simply accepted her presence as a natural part of itself.

She was watching him.

Not intrusively or with judgemental scrutiny.

Just... Simply observing.

Lin Mu did not rise. He merely inclined his head slightly.

"Do you need something?" he asked.

The Saintess shook her head gently.

"No," she replied. "I was only observing you."

Her gaze shifted briefly to his abdomen, then deeper, as if looking straight through flesh and bone.

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